Arizona Diamondbacks (68-90) at San Francisco Giants (85-73), 3:45 p.m.

Sports Network | October 1, 2009

(Sports Network) - The postseason drought will continue for the San Francisco Giants, who will send National League Cy Young candidate Tim Lincecum to the hill today with hopes of recording a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park.

San Francisco was eliminated from postseason contention despite posting its third straight win with a 4-1 triumph over Arizona Wednesday night. Colorado leads the NL Wild Card and has won three in a row as well to erase the Giants from the playoff race.

"We saw the score and it's a hard-fought season," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in reference to the Rockies' 10-6 win over Milwaukee. "We knew the last few days, it's a real longshot but there's still hope. But we saw the score but [his team still] went out and played well tonight."

Lincecum will make one last case for the league's most prestigious pitching honor today, but is just 2-4 over his last six starts. He was beaten by the Chicago Cubs his last time out on Friday, giving up a pair of runs in seven innings of a 3-0 loss. The righty and reigning NL Cy Young recipient fell to 14-7 with a 2.47 ERA in 31 trips to the hill this season.

Lincecum, who is 9-2 in 16 home starts and leads the Senior Circuit with 254 strikeouts, will face Arizona for the third time this season. He is 4-1 with a 1.79 ERA in eight career meetings with the Diamondbacks.

The Giants, who haven't made the playoffs since 2003, got an excellent performance from starter Brad Penny last night. Penny went the distance and held the D-Backs to one unearned run and six hits with five strikeouts. The right-hander went 4-1 in six starts for the Giants after coming over in a trade with Boston.

Eli Whiteside ended with three hits, including a home run, and three RBI for San Francisco, which will close out the season with three games at San Diego over the weekend.

D-Backs young starter Kevin Mulvey was charged with four runs on five hits and a walk over six innings to suffer the loss.

"It's a great experience getting to face big leagues lineups like that, getting to start and getting to go deep into the games, into the sixth inning," said Mulvey. "Each lineup is a big league lineup. There's no break. Every hitter is going to do damage if you make a mistake."

Stephen Drew had a team-high two hits for Arizona, which has dropped four of its last six games and will visit the Chicago Cubs for three games to close out the 2009 campaign.

Toeing the rubber for the Diamondbacks tonight will be ace Dan Haren, who is 0-1 with a 6.43 earned run average in his last two starts and did not factor in the outcome of an 8-5 win versus San Diego on Saturday. He yielded five runs and nine hits in six innings, and remained at 14-9 in 32 starts.

Haren, a right-hander, has allowed five runs in each of his last two starts and will take on the rival Giants for the 16th time in his career. He is 0-1 in two starts this season against San Francisco and 6-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 15 lifetime matchups, 14 of which have been starts.

San Francisco is 12-5 against Arizona this season, with a 6-2 mark by the Bay.